Good brake pads
 

Which brake pads besides OEM are good? I've had bad experiences on other cars with non OEM pads, but I've blown to much dough on the X and need a good brake pad cheap!

-Stuart

Have you looked at www.rockauto.com? Prices are not bad for high end brakes.
Power Stop has been good to me on lots of cars and SUVs. My X5 had brakes done before I bought it so I have no idea what are on. I need to take the wheels off and check.

Textar, Akebono, TRW, Pagid

Those are all "OEM" German pads I've ran and couldn't tell the difference between one brand and the other.

I've also tried Centric and Raybestos semi metallic which are cheap and stop great, but the brake dust is HEAVY.

This is one of those which oil is the best type posts that will surely generate a lot of different answers.

I like Textars, personally.

I do NOT like Jurid, or Akebono.

Edit: As a general matter, avoid any "ceramic" pad, unless you're willing to trade shitty braking performance and feel for low dust. There are a few tolerable ceramic pads, but they are expensive and still worse than the equivalent. (Hawk Performance Ceramic is a good example. OK performance, but $1-200 per axle, and worse in almost every way than the HPS 5.0.)

I stick with the abovementioned OEMs for all my BMWs. Currently have Textar on the 4.6iS and no complaints.

Ate is also one of the OEM suppliers. I've generally used their discs and pads.

What are you looking for? Best performance? Low dust? Quiet? Like everything, there are compromises for different characteristics.

Below is what I put in the E70 section for a similar question.

I'm an outlier when it comes to pads/rotors. I replace all 4 corners at the same time and use a cheap aftermarket brand. Brakemotive. They use ceramic pads and drilled/slotted rotors. Have installed at least 20 full sets across different manufacturers. Never had a full set cost more than $300. They come with new sensors too.

As with all ceramic pads, initial bite/feel suffers a little bit, but nothing crazy. The anchors still drop plenty hard when necessary. Very low dusting. Been using them for 15 years and came to them after reading about them on the Corvette forums. Sometimes they use PowerStop pads, sometimes StopTech, sometimes housebrand pads (all ceramic). Never had a problem or difference in performance with any of them. If I were tracking my X I might go with a set of blanks and organic pads from Textar, Zimmerman, or Pagid but for everyday use have had no issues.

But as with anything, do your research and make your decision.

I've been running Akebono ceramic pads. Very little dust. They bite fine. No black dust. Zimmerman rotors.

I hate cleaning rims, and so ceramic was my choice. They're the best in terms of low dust, low noise, and longevity. I have no problems with them.

The pad composition to stay away from is organics. Those things suck--especially for a +5kLbs rig like an X5.

Eh. Akebonos still dust. And the pedal feel is dramatically worse. Textars have excellent pedal feel within the limits of the shitty slider calipers. I'll happily take more dust, albeit less than Genuine BMW, for making the X5 feel better.